The expression of carcinoembryonic antigen and secretory component in adenomas of the human colon and rectum.

The immunohistochemical staining for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and secretory component (SC) was evaluated in 166 endoscopically obtained colorectal adenomas of 124 patients. Expression of CEA, both in the cytoplasm and on the surface of the epithelial cells, was found to be moderately correlated with the severity of dysplasia in all adenomas. This relation was not observed with the SC expression in the adenomas. Both CEA and SC expressions were found to be increased with the size of the adenomas, but only in the villous adenomas and not in the tubular adenomas. These findings indicate that evaluation of CEA and SC expression does not add much additional information to the known parameters of malignant potential of colonic adenomas, such as dysplasia, size, and pattern of mucosal growth.